Just as he was gloating over his pleasant scheme a queer sound was heard, like a corncrake coming nearer and nearer through a barley field. "Tick, tack, tick, tack, tick, tack."
"The Crocodile! the Crocodile!" the Pirate Captain yelled, and in a moment was flying for his life.
The Pirates had scarcely disappeared in the depths of the forest when the Indians crept silently up in pursuit of them. Tiger Lily, their chieftainess, was at their head, now running swiftly under the trees, now listening with her ear to the ground, to know where her enemies had gone. For, like Tinker Bell and Wendy, she loved Peter Pan, and his enemies were her enemies.
The Redskins slid along, following the Pirates with steps as quiet as those of a beetle crawling through the grass. They soon passed far out of sight, and then, one by one, the Lost Boys peeped from their tree-trunks and, seeing that all was quiet, came out again to their playground in the woods.
THE INDIANS CREPT SILENTLY UP
But their safety did not last for long. A fierce barking of wolves was heard, and Nibs, who had gone off by himself, rushed, quite out of breath, into the midst of the Boys, closely pursued by a pack of lean and hungry wolves with glittering fiery eyes. What were the Lost Boys to do in this terrible plight, when their leader was far away? Fortunately, one of them remembered Peter's plan. Whenever he was attacked by wild beasts Peter used to run at them backwards, jumping along the ground, squinting at them through his legs. The Lost Boys did this all together, and really, it was so astonishing that the wolves fled with terrified howls to the thickets where they lived.[1]
[1] This is a good way of scaring away mad bulls and wild animals, but it is always safer to practise on cows or in the Zoo first.
Then Nibs told the Boys how he had seen the loveliest white bird you could imagine.
"It was flying this way," he said, "it looked so wearied, and as it flew it moaned 'Poor Wendy'."